The Best Friend Factor
by Doc Scratch
Summary: MelloxNear! Set back in the Wammyhouse days and featuring a nervous Near, a confused and stubborn Mello, and Matt being... Matt. Also present and accounted for is a whole lot of awkward, and some mild onesided MattxMello if you squint.
1. Lack of Cooperation

A/N: I have no one to blame but myself for this… okay; maybe I can also blame deviantart. In which case I totally do. Anyway, this is the first chapter of the first story in a series of DN fics I have suddenly been inspired to write. So far all of them feature MelloxNear slash. Yet I personally hate Near and adore Mello… go figure. Matt shows up in almost all of them because I love Matt as well despite his brief appearance in canon. But yeah… so if you enjoy MN stories then be sure to keep your eyes open because I'm going to be posting a veritable barrage over the next week or so.

Disclaimer: DeathNote belongs to Ohba and Obata. Not me. Which is obvious due to the distinct lack of graphic shonen-ai. Emphasis on graphic.

Title: The Best Friend Factor

Summary: MelloxNear! Set back in the Wammy-house days and featuring a nervous Near, a confused and stubborn Mello, and Matt being... Matt. Also present and accounted for is a whole lot of awkward, and some mild one-sided MattxMello if you squint.

Chapter 1: Lack of Cooperation

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes."

"NO!"

"...Yes."

"Dammit Matt! Stop contradicting me!" Mello stamped a foot in a way that would have been childish and immature were it anyone else. Actually, it was still childish and immature, but Matt was going to pretend it's not because Mello has violent tendencies.

"You're contradicting yourself. You asked for my personal opinion and advice as your official Best Friend For As Long As You're Smarter-"

"Forever." Mello corrected. Matt obligingly waved his hand.

"Same difference. But I've come to accept that, so don't change the subject." Matt adjusted his ever present goggles matter-of-factly. "Now, you asked what I thought, and I supplied an answer. It is not my fault if you didn't like aforementioned answer."

"I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH NEAR!" Mello shouted. He was being increasingly loud as the conversation continued, not that he wasn't loud normally, but it usually wasn't necessary to shout at Matt. Matt was a good little best friend/loyal henchman.

"Keep shouting and someone's going to hear that and misinterpret." Matt pointed out, and then considered a moment while Mello stared in horror. The blonde shot a glance around the room, scanning for eavesdroppers disguised as innocent bystanders. Fortunately Matt and Mello had actually managed to secure an empty room for their… uh… 'Philosophical discussion.' "Actually now that I think about it, it wouldn't really be misinterpreting since you _do_ lo-"

"I DO NOT!" Mello yelled, figuring that was a safe enough sentence to broadcast. Matt smiled encouragingly.

"It's ok, really. I mean come on, you may be able to fool everyone else… probably because let's face it man, you can be downright scary… but I've known you for pretty much our whole lives and I can tell that the love/hate relationship has been missing the second word for quite some time now." The red-head explained.

"It was never a love/hate relationship! It's not even a relationship! I just hate him, that's all!" Mello insisted.

"Then why bother and ask my opinion?" Matt retorted. Mello was, for the first time in his memory, left speechless.

"God…damn you Matt." Mello took a large, comforting bite out of the chocolate bar that he'd almost forgotten was in his hand. Matt smiled, and if Mello hadn't been sulking he might have noticed it was a rather sad smile. "If you knew why the hell didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I… thought it was obvious." Matt rubbed at his nose. Mello looked at his friend exasperatedly, but decided there were more important matters at hand.

"Ok… so how do I fix it?" Mello asked, thoughtfully munching on his chocolate. Matt stared in disbelief.

"Uh… come again?" He choked out.

"You know… this uh… love thing. How do I make it go away? I mean, I'm not supposed to love Near. He's _Near,_ for crissakes!" Mello said.

"Mello… you can't just get rid of love. It's kind of persistent." Matt tried to explain. Mello raised an eyebrow.

"But… Ack!" The last word was the involuntary result of Matt grabbing Mello by the wrist and dragging him towards the door with the strength of someone utterly sick of the situation he's found himself in. "What the hell are you doing!?" Mello attempted to squirm out of Matt's grasp, but years of clutching controllers and joysticks had given the gamer a vice-like grip that could probably even hold it's own against crowbars.

"The only way to really come to terms with your feelings is to confront them." Matt informed Mello briskly.

"WHAT!? What is that supposed to _mean!?_"

"It means we're going to find Near, and so help me but I will _throw_ you at him if you don't fucking _say_ something." Matt growled in a very un-Matt-like manner.

"The HELL you will! Let me go!" Mello struggled harder, but to no avail.

Locating Near was not a problem, since the albino rarely moved from his spot on the carpet of the first-floor playroom. Keeping hold of Mello on the way down was an entirely different level of difficulty. The blonde appeared to have entered a stage of panic, abandoning all friendship conduct and turning into a ball of kicking, clawing, biting, profanity-spewing rage.

It was actually quite lucky for Mello that it was a lovely day outside and just about all the other orphans were outdoors and therefore couldn't see him making a spectacle of himself. Matt on the other hand had already mentally signed his own death warrant, and was currently trying to decide what he'd have to shout at Near to put on his tombstone before Mello finished demolishing him. Then again Mello in this state was likely to finish off Near as well, recently realized feelings or no.

This had definitely not been Matt's best idea ever.

TBC...

A/N: Final note here, reviews would be greatly appreciated in any form. Even flames. No seriously, any thoughts at all on the story, please review with them.


	2. Behind Enemy Lines

A/N: Omg I love you people who reviewed. So much. You guys are made of win. So yeah, Rinna-Kun, Huntershivers… Thank you both so much.

Disclaimer: No (legal) owning going on here. Nope. Carry on.

Chapter 2: Behind Enemy Lines

It was a bright, warm summer day. The wind was quite gentle, only a slight breeze that was more refreshing than chilly. Almost every orphan in Wammy House had taken full advantage of the marvelous weather and dashed outside as soon as lessons were over for the day. Almost all, but not quite. Mello and Matt had remained indoors because apparently Mello was having trouble with self-analysis or something like that.

Near was also indoors, but then he rarely went outside. At the moment the pale boy was curled in his usual location of the floor of the ground-level playroom. He was serenely solving a puzzle upside-down and having about as much fun as he ever seemed to when a loud commotion just outside the playroom door caught his attention.

At first Near thought the other children must have come back, but the odds of them doing so this early weren't very good, so he concluded that Mello and Matt must have come this way for some reason and just happened to be being noisy. His suspicions were more or less confirmed as the racket grew closer and he could discern Mello's voice hollering many threatening things that probably didn't belong out of horror movies. Most of them were directed at Matt, if the constant inclusion of the red-head's name amidst the cacophony of curses and threats was any indication. Near wondered what exactly Matt had done or was doing to have so utterly infuriated Mello, who was angry at Matt a great deal less often and less voraciously then... well, everyone else.

Evidently Near was going to find out, because at that moment the door to the playroom slammed open and Matt marched in. He was dragging what appeared to be a black and yellow hurricane and had a fixed expression of determination on his face that is only acquired by those who know they are already doomed, and so they can pretty much do anything without worrying about making it worse.

"Hello Matt... Mello..." Near found himself blinking in surprise, which was new. It took a lot to phase the young prodigy, though this admittedly more than fit the bill. Mello calmed down somewhat once he realized that it was now officially too late to make a break for it, although the poisonous glare he shot Matt did have the desired affect of causing the red-head to shudder. "Was there something you wanted?" Near asked politely, returning attention to his puzzle.

"Actually, yes." Matt answered quickly, cutting off whatever negative response Mello had planned. If looks could kill, Matt would be a slightly smoking carpet-stain. Near glanced up again with a vague spark of interest in his eyes.

"Alright... what is it then?" Near inquired cautiously, his curiousity had been piqued but anything that included a raging Mello was to be handled with care. Matt, for his part, turned to Mello and made a 'well, get on with it' gesture.

"Go to Hell Matt." The response was instantaneous.

"Have it your way." Matt shrugged, then proceeded to committ suicide in the form of snagging Mello by the collar and unceremoniously tossing him onto a stunned Near. The blonde and albino collapsed in a tangled heap of shock, anger, and confusion. "Later!" Matt hauled ass for the door, making it outside just as Mello recovered enough to hurl one of Near's toy robots at a speed that dented the wooden door.

"TRAITOR!" Mello shouted, though Matt was probably halfway across the orphanage by now.

"W-what..." Near meant to ask 'what was all that about?' in a completely calm and disconnected manner. Instead he stuttered a bit and stared up with impossibly wide eyes at Mello, it having just occured to him that they were in very close proximity. Even more alarming was that the list of activities people in close proximity were usually doing was running through his mind and causing a blush to strike itself across his face. Mello looked down at him, and the part of Near's brain that was still functioning properly noted that the blonde was also blushing. Unfortunately even that part of his mind was being very unhelpful in the 'is that good or bad?' department. "Are... you going to get off?" Near questioned nervously.

"You uh... you're kind of... holding onto me." Mello pointed out, drawing Near's attention to that fact that he had indeed latched onto Mello. Probably happened when they had fallen over. Yeah... let's go with that.

"Oh... sorry." Near pulled his arms back from around Mello's chest and the blonde hurriedly rolled off. They sat up, locked eyes, and immediately looked away. The next few minutes were spent in silence as the boys attempted to carefully examine each and every thing in the room besides one another. Mello made an attempt at figuring out when and where exactly he had lost his chocolate bar, and deduced that it was probably dropped sometime when attacking Matt in the hallway. It was a good distraction to focus on... or it would have been if Near's stupid face with it's stupid adorable blush didn't keep popping into Mello's head.

Near numbly picked at the carpet, struggling to make sense of the situation. Matt and Mello had been fighting; or rather Mello had been fighting Matt who had forcibly brought Mello here... the reason for this was unknown. Matt had indicated that there was something to be said to Near by Mello, but that had been rejected by aforementioned blonde, also for reasons unknown to Near. Matt had thrown Mello on top of Near, more lack of foreseeable reasons. Then... uh... More stuff that Near couldn't really figure out reasons for. He may be a genius but he couldn't find much to work with here...

"Hey... Mello..." Near ventured.

"What." Mello stated, he did not want to talk right now, especially not to Near. What he wanted to do right now was find Matt and practice new methods of disembowlment.

"Why did... I mean, why were you and Matt fighting?" Near asked shyly. Mello raised an eyebrow at the tone and swiveled to face the younger boy.

"What's it to you?" The blonde questioned. Near didn't look up, though he stopped picking at the carpet.

"Well, with the current information I have, I can't quite figure out what exactly happened..." Near explained.

"Nothing happened, got it!?" Mello jumped to his feet. Near looked up now, confused.

"But... it did..." The albino blinked once or twice, a scenario that made sense suddenly clicking into place. Mello took notice of the dawning realization that had appeared on Near's face; and he panicked.

"It was just an argument! Matt was only messing around!" Mello growled.

"No... it wasn't that... logically Matt wouldn't have-"

"Alright, alright, I love you, okay!?" Mello waved his arms violently. "There, you happy now? Matt figured it out and apparently decided he was going to make me tell you and now it's worked. YOU HEAR THAT MATT!? ARE YOU FREAKIN' HAPPY NOW!? ARE BOTH OF YOU FREAKIN' HAPPY NOW!?" Mello slumped onto the floor and pressed his face into the carpet. He really wished he had some chocolate... That was Matt's fault too. Stupid Matt. This was all _his_fault.

Near was quiet for several minutes, then a strange impulse seized the pale boy and he found himself crawling across the floor to Mello's lying form. Carefully, oh so very carefully, Near reached out and lightly ran the tips of his fingers through Mello's golden hair. The blonde stiffened, and lifted his head off the ground.

"Near, what the hell are-" Mello began. Near pressed his lips against Mello's gently, sweetly, briefly. Then he pulled back and looked into the eyes of the frozen older boy.

"I'm... happy, now." Near smiled hesitantly.

'...Alright...' Mello thought, as he sat up, 'Matt can live.'

END.

A/N: Ya that's right. It's the end. A short little story but… whatever. But the next fic is coming sooner than you can say 'Holy slash Batman!'


End file.
